Jretal

Welp, it's just about that time where I figured I'd toss up another update

I had a bunch of odds and ends on the car that needed to get attended to before I could get the car street 'legal' once again.

First off the list was my parking lights. For some strange reason my driver's side parking lights stopped working after I did the motor swap (and worked flawlessly before) and the fuse blew every time I turned the lights on. After a few conversations with a fellow AW'er (Thanks again Frank (Katman)!!), I got a good idea of what I needed to do.

I rigged up a little jobber like so to take the load off the fuse and not let it blow:

<img src="http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/62006-2/IMG_2375.jpg">

Basically I took one of my many burned out fuses, clipped the corners to expose the contacts and soldered it up. Worked rather nicely if I do say so myself 8)

I turn on the lights, and this thing glows bright as day, and no amount of wire jiggling in the trunk harness (my suspected culprit) changed it... then I started to think... I snipped and spliced a gray/black wire (same color code to the driver's side parking lights) when rewiring my fuel pump relay... I pull out the multimeter and check continuity... Wouldn't ya guess it, I'm a jackass. For some reason, during my probing, I somehow figured that this wire went to the FPR... it didn't, and I'm still curious how in the hell I pulled that off. I mean, I double checked by probing these wires out twice before cutting and it checked out both times :wtf: So I snip the wire and resplice and then try the FPR... it works fine with a regular relay :tard: I shrug it off and laugh... it works again, so I don't care other than that. This was the last *real* think I needed done before I could get it inspected.

Next on the list was to relay the headlights. I figured, I had the car apart this far, what's a few hours of running/splicing/soldering more wires... :tard:. So I went sifting around my parts stash and found myself 4 good relays... from there, I tore the front end apart... AGAIN! (I'm starting to get good at this :P)

<img src="http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/62009-2/IMG_2384.jpg">

after doing a lil testing to make sure I'm cutting the right wires, I spent some time soldering, etc etc and came up with this lil config:

<img src="http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/62012-2/IMG_2385.jpg">

and to keep the relays out of the element:

<img src="http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/62015-2/IMG_2387.jpg">

On the passenger's side, I had to do two things. Because of my new cross member, the wires were actually too short to reach the headlights anymore :rolls eyes: So I snipped the wires and extended them like so:

<img src="http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/62018-2/IMG_2388.jpg">

and after some more cutting, soldering, etc I came up with this:

<img src="http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/62021-2/IMG_2389.jpg">

Tucked up all snug as a bug in a rug

I then hooked up the headlights, bolted everything back together and gave 'em a test... everything seems to be working perfectly (even with my rewired headlight switch as well!!!!)... so I was very happy to say the least.

Next on the list was more of a turbo safety measure. The XS Power BOV I have is meant for much higher pressure that I'm currently running (keeping it at 6psi or so for the first 1000 miles). Because of this, unless I was really laying on the gas, the pressure would not be released from the system and it would stall the turbo (making that awful noise I don't like hearing from my turbo!) I started shopping around for lower pressure springs and wasn't really finding what I wanted/needed. Then it dawned on me, I have the existing BPV from the donor car still, and I had rigged the BOV setup so I could convert to the BPV if I wanted...

So what I needed to do was take the adaptor to the BOV (1.5" OD) and find a way to couple it with the BPV (1" OD). After some walking around at the hardware store, I came up with this:

<img src="http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/62024-2/IMG_2390.jpg">

I ended up putting a piece of 1" ID rubber hosing over the BPV nipple and then slipped this over it. It's really meant for coupling PVC pipes together, but I think it'll work just fine for my temporary low boosting.

and this is the coupler on the intake tubing:

<img src="http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/62027-2/IMG_2391.jpg">

Works perfectly and all pressure is let off when reving the motor... me =

Once I got that all figured out, it was time I installed that Saab APC (for knock sensing) I picked up from ebay ($30 to my door... def a good score!). I had picked up the wiring harness from a local u-pull-it, so it was just a matter of mounting the box, repinning the harness, and hooking it all up!

I am putting the unit next to the fuse box and bolting it down to where the actuator for the A/C flap goes.

here's the plate:

<img src="http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/62030-2/IMG_2392.jpg">

and here it is all bolted in:

<img src="http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/62033-2/IMG_2393.jpg">

When I compared the pin-outs on the existing harness to the wiring diagram I got from a motorgeeker's website, they were not even close to being the same. So after some futzing around with pulling the pins out, repinning, splicing, soldering, etc.I came up with the final harness. I'm feeding power to it via a new power lead from my new fuse panel, and grounding it at the same panel... all being routed through the current fuse box.

Worked out perfectly And it even works!!! I still need to hook up the wire (orange) to the coil trigger to act as an insulator and not cause faulty readings... but overall, I'm rather happy about it.

Now, no project would be complete without issues... dammit. I'm having starter issues, and I'm not really sure what its deal is honestly. I turn the key and the car kicks over fine... then suddenly it sounds like the starter is spinning, but not engaging into the flywheel :wtf: I pulled the starter and ran it out of the car and it worked fine... so then I cleaned the mounting surface and gave it another go. It'd turn the car over at first, then do the same $hit!! I was getting pissed at this point. I even ran an extra ground wire to the starter (jumper cable) to see if that helped, and still the same.

Miraculously though, after a lot of fighting i managed to get it to start just fine :wtf: and it then restarted just fine a little later after a test spin around the block... I'm pretty much stumped at the moment. After talking with a fellow car nut, I think the concensus is the starter isn't spinning up fast enough to push out and engage with the flywheel. He offered to send me a new starter to test with, but I realized last night I had put in a bid on ebay for one a lil while back and never got outbid :P So I guess I'll try that one out and see how it goes.

So today I'm gonna toss the interior back together for the most part, put the bumper back on, and bring the car to the shop to get inspected and realigned!!! From that point I can then get new stickers so I can get it into work, and I'll be putting some miles on her so I can then up the boost to something more reasonable... like 18-20psi or so haha.

AudiSport4000

Good way of keeping the relays out of the elements. I assume you got the idea from Frank . Mine are exposed and have been for a while (bows head in shame).

I had starter issues as well. Ended up just buying a brand new reman'ed unit from online. Works great to this day. I didnt feel like dicking around with other "used" units that may fail at anytime.

Nice work as always!

Alpine 87.5

awesome report. You should have been an AW project car owner.

Jretal

but thanks for the compliment

Jretal

either one, but yeah... def seems like a good idea... though in all honesty, it'd probably be fine without it. I have an exposed relay in my A4 running my EFK thermostat... then again, that one got fried cuz coolant dripped in it :-P I had it mounted terminals up though, so it made it easy for water to go in though.

CGTBrad

I need to do up a relay box like that for my h1/h4 relays.

RS4000

sounds like the starter solenoid.

Jretal

it's working fine now, but I have a spare starter motor waiting to go in now if it starts acting up again.